At the Alumni Association Hall of Fame nominee voting, I was told that Jacob was the first unanimous vote for Induction into the HOF the history of the of the high school. It's heart warming that his classmates remember him with such affection. The Gulf Shores High School Athletics Hall of Fame inductions took place before kickoff at a September football game.

A copy of the Athletics Hall of Fame booklet (partial) and Jacob's plaque

Updated Jan 14, 2019; Posted Jul 27, 2012
By AL.com and Press-Register staff
GULF SHORES, Alabama --- On June 12, Pleasure Island resident Jacob Halpin and his friend

Rowdy Gaines, NBC swimming commentator and Olympic triple gold medalist, visited the Sherman Field home of the Blue Angel Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron onboard Naval Air Station Pensacola.

Halpin and Gaines met years ago through the Auburn University swimming program. In January 2011, Halpin nominated Gaines for a Blue Angels backseat ride and it finally happened this past month. An NBC video/photo crew was present and Gaines asked Halpin to shadow him through the morning’s events and to be included in the media coverage. Halpin will be seen during Gaines’s Blue Angel clips used on his Summer Olympic swimming broadcast from London.

NBC swimming commentator and Olympic triple gold medalist Rowdy Gaines and Jacob Halpin in a pre-flight briefing room.

Gaines swam at Auburn from 1978-1981 and was twice the World Swimmer of the Year. At one four-year period in his career Gaines held 11 world records. He was slated to win multiple medals at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow that was boycotted by the United States. Four years later Gaines came back to win three gold medals in the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games.

After his flight, Gaines said that standing on the podium receiving his gold medals did not compare with his Blue Angels ride.

Halpin attended Gulf Shores High School in Gulf Shores and is the only high school varsity athlete with Down syndrome to have earned All-State honors and was the first swimmer from the United States to hold world records through the Down Syndrome International Swimming Organization.

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In 2003 Jacob was a co-captain on the Gulf Shores High School swim team and received the Alabama High School Sports Magazine's Humanitarian Award.

Gulf Shores High School was considered a small size school in Alabama, about 300 students total and having just come into existence in 1999. During Jacob's four years on the high school swim team their finishes were as follows:

  2002-2003:  Placed  9th statewide